WASHINGTON, D.C.  Nov 6 (DPI) – Shellacked in Tuesday’s midterm elections, Democrats this week are wringing their hands over their loss of control of the U.S. Senate – and their party’s many miscalculations.

Comment boards everywhere were alight with day-after second-guessing, most reflecting the broadly held view that Democrats emphasized social issues too much and didn’t take enough credit for improving economic conditions.  One of the most popular posts on NYTimes.com yesterday:

The Democrats richly deserve this defeat, for choosing to run away from the Affordable Care Act, the improving economy, our energy self-sufficiency, the decreasing deficit, etc., and instead campaigning on reproductive rights, gay rights and other liberal social issues. They let Republicans drive every narrative. They deserved to lose.

Comments on The Times site – practically the house organ for the national Democratic Party — remained mostly angry that the Republicans seemed to out-message, out-package and out-organize their Democratic rivals.

Amazing! American voters “punish” the Democrats — and Obama — by voting for Republican candidates. Yet it’s not even clear what the GOP stands for anymore. They are clearly a party divided. As for the Democrats, they, too, seem lost and without any real core principles. Obama “talks the talk, but doesn’t walk the walk,” as they say. To this dispassionate observer, away up here in the cheap seats, it looks as if American voters would welcome a new national party\, ala Teddy Roosevelt’s 1912 Progressives. It’s clear the two old-line parties are hopelessly divided, and the gridlocked system in Washington is broken. The (millionaire) idealogues elected Tuesday who insist they will make Washington squeal are blowing hot air. Or if they do make the cuts that are needed, you can bet they (or their big money backers) will not be the ones to suffer. What a sad situation.

The Democratic candidates deserved to lose. Their main campaign strategy was to abandon Obama and his accomplishments and to cower in the face of the fear mongering deceitful GOP campaigns. If you cannot stand up to fear and lies and campaign on your platform- you deserve to lose. If you cannot communicate why electing a GOP majority in Congress will just lead to more gridlock, then you deserve to lose. If you cannot say that a vote for Republicans is to vote against your own self interest- then you deserve to lose. Republicans are just really good liars and stay on point. Democrats are scared of their own shadow- gutless wonders. This is a sad day- but the result will only last for 2 years- long years to be sure.

Finally, the election results bode very poorly for Hillary Clinton, who many Democrats feel is too cozy with corporations and Wall Street.  One of the most popular comments today on NYTimes.com:

The real key is the “weak message”. People are not coming out to vote for Democrats because too many “Democrats” are really Republican-lite corporatists pushing policies that are indistinguishable from business-wing Republicans. To win again, Democrats are going to have to start taking strong stands against corporate monopolies, and the ever-worsening inequalities of income that are destroying the middle and working classes. Social Security needs to be repaired and bolstered; a real universal-healthcare system, preferably “single-payer”, needs to be adopted; supports for higher education need to be restored and strengthened; a real push to switch from fossil fuels to renewables needs to be made; money wasted overseas on useless and counterproductive wars needs to be switched to repairing our crumbling infrastructure; and so on.

Hillary Clinton is just another corporate “Democrat”, and may well be beaten in ’16 if the Democratic Party makes the mistake of nominating her. What we really need is someone like Bernie Sanders for president–to begin the process of taking our democracy back from the corporatist plutocracy that is on the verge of destroying it.